Bannon and Trump,

JENNIFER JACOBS AND JUSTIN SINK Steve Bannon pledged his continued support for Donald Trump after the president’s forceful denunciation of his former chief strategist finalized a political divorce that is forcing a reckoning within the Republican Party.

“Nothing will ever come between us and President Trump and his agenda,” Bannon told a caller on Breitbart radio Thursday morning, adding “we’re tight on this agenda as we’ve ever been.”

The rift between the former political partners was sparked by comments Bannon made in a forthcoming book about the Trump White House, calling meetings between Trump’s family members and Russian operatives “treasonous,” among other statements.

Trump’s lawyer sent Bannon a cease-and-desist letter alleging he broke a confidentiality agreement by “making disparaging statements and in some cases outright defamatory statements” about Trump and his family to the book’s author.

Trump told reporters at the White House Thursday that Bannon’s more complimentary comments Wednesday evening and Thursday show his former aide “obviously changed his tune very quick.” He added he is no longer in touch with Bannon, saying “I don’t talk to him. That’s just a misnomer.”

The breakup is primed to benefit establishment Republicans led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has long argued Bannon’s promotion of fringe candidates hurts Republican chances to retain control of Congress. McConnell’s allies openly cheered Trump’s break with Bannon.

“That outside antagonist is now gone, making it more likely we’ll see a Republican president do what he can to protect the Republican majorities that he has worked with to deliver tax reform, judges, regulatory reform,” said Republican Scott Jennings.

Breaking from the strategist, who boasted privately in September that he still spoke with the president two to three times a week, could help Trump reset his presidency with a symbolic division from the fringe elements of his base that dragged down his approval rating among moderates.

But the president has also lost a fall guy for devastating political miscalculations, like his decision to criticize “both sides” after last summer’s violence at a white supremacist demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“Bannon provided Trump with one of his convenient shields that could be discarded in case of emergency,” Republican strategist Doug Watts said.

The book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, portrays the president as paranoid, erratic and often inept and his administration as riven by petty rivalries that often made accomplishing anything impossible.